Bergen-Lafayette, Jersey City

Bergen-Lafayette is a section of Jersey City, New Jersey.

As its name implies, Bergen-Lafayette is made of different neighborhoods. It lies west-southwest of Downtown and Liberty State Park. Its less-defined other borders overlap those of Greenville at Hudson-Bergen Light Rail to the south, Lincoln Park/West Bergen to the west, and Montgomery Street at McGinley Square to the north.

The name Bergen, used throughout Hudson County, is taken from the original Bergen, New Netherland settlement at Bergen Square. The district can correspond to the former Bergen City, which existed from 1855 to 1870 and was originally incorporated as a town by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 24, 1855, from portions of Bergen Township. In 1862, it did a reverse takeover, absorbing the remaining portions Bergen Township. On April 14, 1863, portions of the town were taken to form Greenville Township. Bergen was reincorporated as a city on March 11, 1868. On May 2, 1870, both Bergen City and Hudson City elected to merge with Jersey City.

Kennedy Boulevard and Bergen Avenue are a major north-south thoroughfares in the city running south from Journal Square along the ridge of the diminishing Hudson Palisades A variety of architectural styles can be found along these streets and their sidestreets including 19th-century rowhouses, Victorian mansions, and pre-war and Art Deco apartment buildings, and the Renaissance Revival former Jersey City YMCA. Monticello Avenue is a shopping district lined with many turn-of-the-century buildings with storefronts being brought back into use. The Fairmount Apartments and Temple Beth-El are a prominent landmark on Kennedy Boulevard. Lincoln the Mystic, a statue of a seated Abraham Lincoln by James Earle Fraser, is situated at its Boulevard entrance. As its name suggests West Bergen overlaps this neighborhood. The city is now defining this area with maps and other promotions to encourage use of the name McGinley Square.

...
Wikipedia